Dynamics of rural landscapes in marginal areas of northern Spain: Past, present, and future
2019
González Díaz, José Antonio | Celaya, Rafael | Fernández García, Felipe | Osoro, Koldo | Rosa García, Rocío
European marginal areas hold multifunctional landscapes threatened by current changes in socio‐economy. Understanding both common and singular drivers behind the changes in the local socio‐economy and the landscapes is crucial to design sustainable policies at several spatial scales, which guarantee the provision of multiple ecosystem services in those areas. This work investigated the evolution of the local socio‐economy as well as the changes in landscape structure and composition in two areas (one in lowlands and other in high mountains) from northern Spain, which are representative of the European Union marginal territories. The censuses of local human population and livestock species together with landscape metrics from 1956 and 2011 were evaluated from both areas. Depopulation due to rural exodus, land abandonment, and drastic changes in livestock production systems concurred with reforestation, shrub expansion, and grassland reductions, which led to landscape fragmentation in the highlands and compactation in the lowlands. Eucalyptus plantations proliferated, whereas croplands virtually disappeared in the lowlands, where dairy systems were substituted by beef cattle. In the highlands, broom expanded and heathlands declined as small ruminants disappeared. Improvements in rural development and reformulated land management strategies at landscape scale will be crucial to control social and environmental degradation associated with the expansion of certain classes.
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